Mexico launches project to create state-owned mobile network

MEXICO CITY Oct 9 (Reuters) - Mexico's government on
Thursday kick-started a project to launch a state-owned mobile
network by 2018, part of a wider effort to support competitors
to billionaire Carlos Slim's dominant America Movil.

Mexico's telecoms regulator and the telecommunications and
transport ministry (SCT) agreed on terms and conditions for the
development of the network in a first step toward launching it,
according to a statement from the regulator.

Six telecom equipment makers are carrying out field studies
for the public-private project, deputy SCT minister Jose Ignacio
Peralta said in the statement.

Telecom equipment makers Alcatel-Lucent and
Ericsson have already helped a consortium place a bid
to build the network, Reuters reported last month.

Mexico's government, which estimates the network will
require an investment of about $10 billion over 10 years, wants
to pick a winner in mid-2015, two sources told Reuters.

The regulator said in its statement that it agreed on a
timetable for the project with the SCT, but it did not give
details of any key dates.

Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto has bet that opening
up the telecom sector will boost economic growth, going so far
as to put the mobile network project into the constitution with
a completion date of late 2018, to prevent lobbying efforts to
halt it.
(Reporting by Elinor Comlay; Editing by Ken Wills)